ColorTherapy: Zig Zag

How hot is this? I'll forsake color this week ever so slightly in favor of line and graphic gravitas. File this under "Fun With Paint." Yes, this is decorative painting. You see things like this on wallpaper sites all over the web, and it is my new mission to steal as much work as possible from paper hangers. When you paint instead of paper, specific color and scale become putty in your hands.

My new goddess Nina Freudenberger of Haus Interior was the lead designer on this project. We kept the palette pretty neutral here in deference to boldness and simplicity, Farrow & Ball London Clay over a base of Shaded White. I sketched in the first zigzag directly on the wall, vertical lines were drawn and a repeat was established of one inch white to five inches London Clay. I chose to paint brown over white instead of white over brown — it's trickier to paint thin lines than thick, and no I don't like to use tape, it triples the time and inevitably bleeds.

This was my first decorative paint project using Farrow & Ball, and the paint behaved marvelously — it covered well and brushstrokes in the emulsion flattened out into nothing. Who knew? And as I say, I still paint free hand, no tape. If you zig when you should have zagged, it's lost in the pattern. And thanks to Michael at Bosse Limited for bringing me into the project. what a perfect triumvirate.